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Why McMillan's are worth the wait and price

After 4 months of waiting my stock finally came in for my lefty Ruger Alaskan. Fit and finish was pretty good but the barrel channel needed some work. After sanding the right side of the barrel channel the barrel finally became free floated. But now the gap on the left was god awful looking. I emailed McMillan telling them of the problems and they told me to ship the barreled action and stock back to them so they could fix it. Even better was they told me they would reimburse me the shipping charges down to them and pay for the shipping back up here. Also promised to have it returned to me in under 2 weeks after they received it. This is first rate service.

I don't praise to many companies for great service but McMillan always come through for me. The wait for a stock has also shortened to about 4 months compared to 6 in years past.

I agree with everything you said Snowwolfe. 3 years ago I had 0 Mcmillan stocks and wouldn't even consider buying one. Today I have 2 and 2 more ordered that should be ready in the next 30 days. I love em! Its hard to hunt with Tupperware Plastic synthetics anymore after getting used to Fiberglass, not to mention what their designs do to tame recoil.

I've always wondered....

No question they are great and worth the wait.

I have wondered two things though:
1. Why hasn't someone been able to give them some competition?
2. Do they intentionally keep the lead times out there to warrant the high price and keep the mystique of being hard to get?

Haven't they been the OEM for some factory stocks? Sako and Winchester come to mind.... It would seem if they could ramp up for those kind of jobs they could keep up with the aftermarket.

Anybody got some good intel or insight on the McMillan supply/demand scenario?

Some of the early synthetics from Weatherby were made by McMillian. They are hard to find as they didnt stick with them for long but there are some MKVs and even early Vanguards that came from Weatherby with them. A buddy of mine recently picked up one of the old "lightweight Vanguards, they just came from the factory with a 20" instead of 24" bbl", in 7mm Rem and it had a green McMillain stock. He phoned the folks at Wby and they varified that both the short tube and the green stock were OEM.

Winchester may have offered them on the Classic line in the larger calibers in the late 90's or early 00's. I dont know for sure but I sure see an awful lot of those rifles in 375 and 416 wearing McMillains.

They are great stocks but if it were my rifle I think that I would just save the time and money and stock it with either a Bansners High Tech or an MPI. Both of those brands are strong, durable, and have excellent customer service as well as being around half the price and a third the wait time.

Anybody got some good intel or insight on the McMillan supply/demand scenario?

They are as custom as custom gets. You can pick the stock design,LOP, recoil pad, colors (solids and Swirleys), and amount of fill. When you are making it with all those things in mind for an individual there are several steps in the customization process, unlike mass production of set specs. Hence the wait time.